Nepse lists 95 firms under Class-A category

Five development banks, two insurance companies, 10 finance companies, two hotels, National Hydropower Company and Nepal Telecom (NT) -- a total of 21 listed companies -- made it to the prestigious Class-A category in this fiscal year, according to the Nepal Stock Exchange (Nespe).
"The Nepse has listed 95 companies under Class-A category, out of the total 149-listed companies at the sole secondary market," said the sole secondary market here today.
A company that has atleast Rs 20 million paid up capital, minimum of 1,000 common share holders, operating in profit since last three years, must have floated shares to public under the by-laws 9, book value per share must not be less than its paid up value and has been submitting its financial statement within six months from the closure of the fiscal year is qualified to be listed under the Class-A category, according to the Nepse.
The number of companies listed under Group-A category has been continuously increasing since 1996-97, when there were only seven companies under the category.
"In the year 2009-10, Nepse also delisted three companies from under the Class-A category apart from adding 21 to it," the Nepse said adding that two companies merged to get entry into the prestigious category. "United Insurance, Bhajuratna Finance and Everest Finance are delisted from under the Class-A category as they didnot abide by the regulation," it added. However, Nepse listed five development banks, two insurance companies, 10 finance companies, two hotels, one hydropower company and Nepal Telecom (NT) under the Class-A companies in this fiscal year," said secondary market that has been witnessing a sluggish performance in the last three months.
Nepal Stock Exchange, according to the international norms, classifies the listed companies under the Class-A category according to their performances.
According to the Nepse, 15 commercial banks are under the Class-A category, whereas only one company each -- Unilever Nepal Ltd and Nepal Telecom -- from the manufacturing group and Others group are under the Class-A, two each from hydropower companies group and hotels group, 11 from insurance companies group, 43 finance companies, 20 development banks fall under the Class-A category.

Investors low confidence makes Nepse hover around 600-point mark

The secondary market is losing steam as it has come down to hover at the 600-point mark in a year. Last October, it was hovering at the 950-point mark.
Low investor confidence and uncertainty are pulling the secondary market index down, though this week it posted a consolation gain of 5.18 points to 609.55 points from last week's closing of 604.37 points.
The commercial banks, others and development banks sub-groups gained to push Nepse up as they posted 6.67 points gain to 595.63 points, 11.75 points gain to 657.94 points and 5.07 points gain to 657.72 points, respectively.
Of the nine sub-groups, two did not see any trading this week and three sub-groups -- hydropower, trading and finance -- lost.
The hydropower sub-group lost 13.74 points to drop to 813.95 points, trading 4.89 points to drop to 256.41 points and finance 6.87 points to drop to 627.27 points, respectively.
This week's top performers were National Hydropower (with Rs 100.21 million), Standard Chartered Bank Nepal (with Rs 52.21 million), Nepal Bangladesh Bank (with Rs 26.82 million), Nepal SBI Bank (with Rs 20.39 million) and Citizens' Bank International (with Rs 15.68 million).
The secondary market began the week in the red as it shed 5.04 points to 599.33 points. On Monday too, the market was in the red zone but from Tuesday and over the last three days it tried to bounce back -- though marginally.
The 78-scrip sensitive index -- considered blue chip shares in the domestic market -- gained 1.14 points to go up to 153.67 from the Sunday morning's opening of 152.53 points. Similarly, the float index -- calculated on the basis of real transactions -- also gained by a mere 0.32 point to reach 58.16 points from Sunday's opening of 57.84 points.
The transaction amount for this week increased by 31.48 per cent to Rs 370.13 million against last week's increase of 12.10 per cent. However, the contribution of Group-A companies decreased to 44.89 per cent from last week's 53.75 per cent.
This week 5,44,305-unit rights shares of Navadurga Finance were listed at Nepse. In terms of transaction amount and number of shares, National Hydro topped the chart. National Hydro's 11,75,000-unit shares changed hands for Rs 100.21 million but in terms of number of trading Pashupati Development Bank topped the chart with 373 tradings.

NB Group's trading dominates Nepse floor

The NB Group's institutions witnessed heavy selling today. Nepal Bangladesh Bank, Nepal Credit and Commerce (NCC) Bank and National Hydropower saw their 5,560-unit, 5,250-unit and 5,910-unit shares transactions at the sole secondary market today.
The number of shares traded of these three institutions is the largest at the Nepse today. They were traded at Rs 1,731,440; Rs 1,598,380 and Rs 767,430. "The confirmation of new governor's appointment might have sent cold wave to the NB Group that has been in news for all the wrong reasons," said one broker in condition of anonymity.
Meanwhile, the secondary market closed 8.59 points lower today to 651.22 points, The sensitive index -- barometer of A group companies -- ended 3.98 points below to 168.91 points from its previous close on Tuesday. Similarly, the float index was also down by 1.18 points over its previous close and ended trade at 63.55 points.
The biggest loser today is development banks group that lost 28.87 points to 910.5 points, followed by finance companies group that lost 19.09 points to 897.41 points. The banking group also shed 16.22 points to 611.17 points. However, Insurance companies group and others group gained. The others group gained 11.74 points to close at 628.57 points.

Nepse sets another record, hits 813.77 points

Nepali shares closed at 813.77 points on the last day of the trading from the opening of 796.34 points on Sunday. On the first day of the trading, the sole secondary market index set a record by crossing 800 points mark for the first time in its 14-year long history, and posted 811.98 points. On the second day, the index registered 828.77 points. The Nepse index saw an increment of 12.12 points on the third day as it posted 833. 56 points.
However, the Nepse index could not continue its growth throughout the week as it posted 811.97 points on the fourth day. Finally, the Nepse index closed only 1.79 points higher on the last day of the trading from Sunday's closing, as one of the current market driver hydropower group registered a loss of 43.62 points.
"Buyers were cautious on the unnatural growth of share prices of the institutions that have negative net worth and profit earning (PE) ratio," said an analyst adding that the unnatural growth also forced Nepse to issue a cautious notice to the investors.
After an initial rally of over 800 points for the first time in its history, the secondary market started to slowdown. Commercial banks' group, the market leader, has posted only a marginal growth of 3.82 points in its index as it registered 910.37 points from the opening 906.55 points.
Similarly, the manufacturing group also posted a growth of 2.34 points this week as its index closed at 350.00 points from 347.66 points.
The hotel group, insurance group, finance group and development banks' group, all saw growth in their respective indices as they posted 280.95 points, 655.62 points, 527.45 points, 689.21 points from 277.79 points, 647.92 points, 511.98 points, and 675.94 points respectively.
Though sensitive index gained only 0.04 point in comparison to last week and posted a total of 208.97 points, it comprises 74.12 per cent of the total transactions.
The Nepse floor remained open for all the five days this week, where the shares of 25 companies saw regular transactions of their shares throughout the week. The government's bonds did not see any transaction this week, too.
Chilime Hydropower Company outshone all others this week in terms of the largest monetary value, as its shares worth Rs 125,610 exchanged hands at Nepse. However, Nepal Bangladesh Bank stood first in terms of transaction with 206 transactions.
Similarly, National Hydropower Company stood first in terms of the largest number of shares units traded for the week. The company's 12,5610 shares were traded this week.